Cabinet positioning in the room. Where do you put yours?

[Machinated]

Ok, this question obviously rules out all the pod/digital guys that are on this forum. And I suppose this is more aimed at people who have the luxury of moving the cab about in the room rather than those that have to have it in a certain position of the room.

Obviously having the cab near the wall is going to give you more bass, are you guys using this to your benefit? There's a ton of studio photos where the amps are mic'd up near the wall.

Mine are usually a few feet away from the walls, and I'm getting a ton of nasty mids in my signal that seems to be there regardless of guitar/amp/cab/mic. Really annoying me as I want to get the sound in without any of those frequencies being too prevalent. I'm not sure my cab position is responsible for this, but maybe by not having the extra bass build up I'm focussing the bad Mids more?

I've tried moving the cab around the room, and even turned it on its side and I got some better results for that project. I also want to experiment with decoupling, although I don't think I'm getting too much bass most of the time.

Suppose it's also worth mentioning mic stands - has anyone noticed a difference depending on which one they are using? Obviously sturdier is better as it isn't going to move at all and cause phase problems.

FWIW is anyone tracking guitars that don't have too much 450-800Hz? Any advice for minimising this on the way in?

Hope this thread turns out interesting....

 

[botus99]

I usually mic up my cabs (I have a Mesa Oversized and a Laney something-or-other) about 2-3ft from the wall. For my purposes, it adds the perfect amount of "weight" to the sound. That has more to do with my choice in equipment and the room though so it may not work as well for others.

I've tried in the middle of the room, different angles, etc. My conclusion is everything is totally dependant (on the mix, mic used, cab position, amp settings, etc.) If you're having trouble with the midrange, try a different mic or different amp settings

 

[Machinated]

I've got several 1960's, the oversized mode four cab and a Mesa oversized at my disposal. Still yet to record any of those or a dual/triple rec/5150/Krank/orange/ton of marshalls that I didn't need to suck out some 750hz on. Sure that's pretty common for everyone but I'd still love to try and get it right going in.

Should really try and pick up some ribbons down the line and see if they help me out. Id still like to improve my raw 57 sound going in. It's going to be hard to compare as everyone's room sounds different, but it would be interesting to hear how people have moved their cabs around and what effect it had.

 

[Machinated]

Well today I've moved by cabs from about 3ft away from the wall to right against it. Definitely improved my midrange problem, although it's still not 100%.

Going to try other positions throughout the day. Karma sutra of guitar micing.

 

[Firaxis]

I usually am about 3 feet from a wall but I try to angle the cab so you don't get any direct reflections, sometimes put a foam amp cover behind it and it seems to help out.

 

[Machinated]

I think the cabinet resonance from the back hitting the wall has a bigger impact on the sound than I'd imagined. These guitars needed an extra kick in the bass and using the wall behind it has given them more life.

It's certainly worth considering when reamping, I guess I'd got used to where it was and forgot the difference that the wall behind it can make.

 

[JakeAC5253]

There's a ton of studio photos where the amps are mic'd up near the wall.

A lot of "engineers" are idiots...

 

[Machinated]

Haha true, I'd imagine a lot aren't thinking about it/aware...

 

[Proggm]

It's not a good idea to put your source in the middle of the room. Typically you'll have some sound pressure anomalies there.

 

[onetruth]

I usually try to have my cabs positioned at 38% of the room length and also so they're aiming down the longest axis of the room. Basically using the same principles as for figuring out the best listening position in the control room. The room modes should be the least horrible around this area. however, as we all know, its all about trial and error and doing what sounds good. Different rooms may have different "best" positions. But certainly using this as a guideline has worked for me so far.

Although I did put a Vox AC30 in the corner of a room on my last session for one overdub where we needed some extra bottom end and that worked well. But it certainly wouldn't have been suitable for all of the main rhythm tracks!

Also, I'm still yet to find a time when i'm not sucking out a shedload of 600-800hz.

 

[Shinozoku]

A lot of "engineers" are idiots...

*trollin*

 

[Firaxis]

*trollin*

I always thought having it parallel to a wall so reflections come straight back caused build up. Fredman has his angled in a similar way to how I do mine and I've seen plenty of people using traps to stop the reflections.

 

[Shinozoku]

His isolation booth is built with odd angles, and I believe the wall it's facing has some absorption in that red part. Plus, it appears he has an alcove above it, likely to redirect and catch odd low freqs. Anywho, just thought I'd throw that out there for some folks

 

[JakeAC5253]

*trollin*

I admire Studio Fredman's work, though with few exceptions I can't say that I typically like their guitar tones, though they do have a signature sound, and that room and cab setup is undoubtedly a part of that sound. A setup like that which is heavily reliant on room modes and reflections to tune the sound will lead to an unpredictable or unrepeatable result, which I think shows in Fredman's work, at least to an extent.

 

[Charles J]

His isolation booth is built with odd angles, and I believe the wall it's facing has some absorption in that red part. Plus, it appears he has an alcove above it, likely to redirect and catch odd low freqs. Anywho, just thought I'd throw that out there for some folks

THANK YOU.

This question is SO FUCKING DEPENDENT on SO MANY THINGS it's not even really something that can be quantified.

After reading through this thread I noticed only a FEW people mentioned that it depends on your ROOM, first and foremost.

What the dimensions are, any acoustic treatment; such as difussion, bass traps, soffit type walls, floor type, celing type, etc.... in THIS CASE, it's TOTALLY subjective (isn't all of this? haha) as to 'where' is the beat spot.

Our live room is very tight, especially in the low-end and I end up putting the cab in a different spot for every record. It really just depends... I find I DO PREFER the sound of the cab about 38% from the longest back to front point (our live room is oddly shaped with ZERO parallel walls so it's difficult to explain that, hahah).

But as someone mentioned abouve, that's usually a good starting point if your're mic'ing the cab in a live room (and even so, this really only pertains to small/medium-ish spaces)

To sun it up: there is no REAL asnwer to this or even general answer. I've found I like cab setup about 2ft from the wall in straight up SQUARE rooms (such as our old control room) but beyond that, ME NOT KNOW. =D

 

[Machinated]

haha i guess the point i was trying to make is that even though everyones room sounds different, its definitely worth moving the cab all over the room and trying different positions. i never really appreciated the amount of difference it made before....